Residential Segregation and Unequal Access to Local Public Services in India: Evidence from 1.5m Neighborhoods

Sam Asher, Kritarth Jha, Paul Novosad, Anjali Adukia and Brandon Tan

No 12466, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: We study residential segregation and access to public services across 1.5 million urban and rural neighborhoods in India. Muslim and Scheduled Caste segregation in India is high by global standards, and only slightly lower than Black-White segregation in the U.S. Within cities, public facilities and infrastructure are systematically less available in Muslim and Scheduled Caste neighborhoods. Nearly all regressive allocation is across neighborhoods within cities at the most informal and least studied form of government. These inequalities are not visible in the aggregate data typically used for research and policy.

Keywords: segregation; neighborhoods; place-based policies; marginalized groups; infrastructure; access to public services; electricity; schools; sanitation; India; Muslims; Scheduled Castes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H4 H41 I24 J15 O15 R12 R13 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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